WASHINGTON – A new US National Security Strategy (NSS) has accused Europe of economic, political and cultural deterioration, sending shockwaves through Brussels but delighting the continent’s populist parties.
The controversial strategy, signed by US President Donald Trump, warns that Europe is on the brink of ‘civilisational erasure’ due to decades of decline, and condemns its practice of ‘censorship’ and ‘mass migration’ that will render the continent ‘unrecognisable in 20 years or less’.
The report crystalises in stark terms the growing facture between the EU and its most important ally, the United States, threatening to torpedo a relationship that has defined global politics since the Second World War.
It comes as a furious Elon Musk called for the EU to be ‘abolished’ and for ‘sovereignty returned to individual countries’ after his social media company X was fined 120 million Euros (£105 million) by tech regulators for breaching online content rules.
While the Kremlin showered praise on the 33-page NSS report, calling it ‘largely consistent’ with Moscow’s vision, EU officials blasted the US for turning its back on Europe.
‘‘For the first time since the end of the Second World War, the USA is no longer standing by the Europeans,’’ said Norbert Röttgen, a member of the German Bundestag.
‘‘If this strategy were to succeed, the EU would no longer exist,’’ he told the Editorial Network Germany.
‘‘What we cannot accept is the threat to interfere in European politics,’’ European Council President António Costa told a conference in Brussels.
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